I own a hen and jake hardshell set from Flambeau which I bought several years ago. I noticed when I placed the stake inside the plastic insert inside the decoy and set up the decoy, the decoy would set level and almost in an alert position.

So I took a screwdriver and removed the screw which holds the plastic insert in place and reinstalled the insert back about 3 inches behind it's original location. By doing this it changed the center of the decoy and now it sits with it's head facing down in a "feeding" position. I did this to both decoys so they look like a feeding pair.

I used some Testor's model paint and added some detail and realism to the decoy in general.

Finally, I'm adding a small dowel with about 30 feet (a little more than what I need) of fishing line tied to the decoy so that I can give it a little tug if I need to add motion. I will also have a couple lengths of coat hanger that I can stick in the ground next to the decoy to prevent it from spinning around 360 degrees which would spook any turkeys that see it do that.

I did the same thing with some soft decoys (from Delta I think) a few years ago. I moved the grommet back like you said and it definitely made the decoys look like they were feeding.

I now use Carry-lite decoys and the hen's posture is feeding and the jake's upright. I haven't changed anything on the jake due to its body positioning. It wouldn't look quite right to move its stake location.

When I used the Delta decoys, I also did the anti-spin trick, but I just used some sturdy sticks picked up from the woods and carried around in my vest. The Carry-lite decoys have a short string attached on the bottom breast area to which I added a 3" piece of stiff wire. When setting up the decoys, I push the wire into the ground, leaving some slack in the string to allow 25-30 degrees spin.

I also have the handle section from an old gun cleaning rod (about 12" long) to use as a "hole starter" for the stakes. Sometimes the ground is hard enough to need a little help getting the stake in.

I took that fihing line idea one step further a couple years back by takeing a Knight and Hale tom coffin push-pull call and makeing a bracket for it so I could stake it under the decoy. Ran the fishing line back to my set up and gave it a tug now and then. It worked! I also use that call set up when I'm not useing decoys to sound like a moving hen or multiple hens in two seperate areas. I'll place the call set up a few yards behind me. That way if a tom seems like he wants to hang up I can make him think the hen has lost interest for him not commiting and is starting to move away from him. Had that work for me twice.

If it gobbles,runs on gas, or is married to you it will give you trouble!

I bolted a pair of gobbler wings to the side of my by b-mobil. I also caped a tom and dried the cape. I then sowed velcro to the underside of the cape and stuck velcro on b-mobil's back. i could have permanteley attached the cape but i didn't want to have a soggy wet decoy on rainy days. When it is nice out and Im hunting an open area i break out my homemade stuffer. I did get the pleasure of watching a tom get whacked while standing on the back of my decoy in western IL last year. This project is very simple and much cheaper and in my opinion conveinant that a stuffer.